Democrat Cecilia Tkaczyk wins NY 46th Senate District seat (videos)

KINGSTON, N.Y. -- More than two months after Election Day, Democrat Cecilia Tkaczyk on Friday overcame a 35-vote deficit to narrowly defeat Republican George Amedore in the race for the state's 46th Senate District seat.

The counting of 90 previously challenged paper ballots in Ulster County sealed the victory for Tkaczyk. She got 69 votes among those ballots while Amedore got 15. Four of the ballots contained no votes in the Senate race, and two had write-in votes for town of Ulster Supervisor James Quigley.

That gave Tkaczyk a 19-vote lead out of more than 126,000 ballots cast with only two paper ballots remaining -- one in Albany County and one in Montgomery County. The Albany County ballot was opened later Friday and revealed a vote for Amedore.

The 46th Senate District comprises parts of Ulster, Albany and Schenectady counties and all of Greene and Montgomery counties. Tkaczyk will serve a two-year term.

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Neither Amedore nor Tkaczyk was at the Ulster County Board of Elections for Friday's count. Amedore, a former state assemblyman, lives in Rotterdam; Tkaczyk, a former school board vice president, lives in Duanesburg.

Tkaczyk said in a prepared statement after the tally was completed that she looked forward "to hitting the ground running" as the senator in the new 46th District.

"It is an incredible privilege to have been selected by the people of the 46th District to serve as their state senator," Tkaczyk said in her statement. "No one believed our campaign had a chance in a district hand-carved by Republicans, and yet the power of good ideas and a strong campaign proved itself." She also thanked those who volunteered on her campaign and in the post-election ballot counting process.

Tkaczyk's win gives enrolled Democrats a 33-30 majority in the state Senate, but Senate Republicans have formed a ruling coalition with five breakaway Democrats and a sixth who sits with Republicans.

Amedore, who at one point was certified the winner in the race and who declared victory on more than one occasion, issued a statement to the media on Friday in which he did not mention Tkaczyk by name, did not acknowledge her victory and did not congratulate her.

The statement, in full, was: "I want to thank the constituents that I've had the honor to serve (as an assemblyman), as well as those who supported me in this campaign. I am proud of the honest and clean campaign that I and my team ran in this extended race. I was supported by the hard-working upstate families who are faced with tremendous challenges in these trying times. The time for politics has ended, and the time to govern is at hand. As a small businessman born and raised in upstate New York, I understand the everyday issues. I believe our representatives need to act on behalf of those who call upstate their home. As I've done throughout my life, I will continue to advocate for the people's needs and hope for a brighter future."

A Tkaczyk spokesman said Amedore called the senator-elect Friday and that the two "had a very pleasant conversation."

The race had been in limbo since Election Day amid numerous legal challenges.

Last month, acting state Supreme Court Justice Guy Tomlinson in Montgomery County certified Amedore the winner of the election by a tally of 63,141 to 63,104, but Tkaczyk appealed that ruling.

The Appellate Division of state Supreme Court, Third Department, then ordered the counting of 99 paper ballots that previously had been invalidated by the lower court.

Amedore's campaign appealed that decision, but the state Court of Appeals on Wednesday said its judges had voted 4-1 to not take up the case, clearing the way for the 99 ballots to be counted. Of those ballots, 90 were from Ulster County (including 53 from poll workers who had submitted them prior to the two-week window before the general election). Tkaczyk carried Ulster County by a wide margin on Election Day.

Eight of the 99 ballots were from Greene County and one was from Albany County. The eight ballots in Greene County were counted Thursday, with five votes going to Tkaczyk and three going to Amedore, cutting the Republican's lead from 37 votes to 35.

At the last minute, an unopened absentee ballot was found in Montgomery County. No decision has been made yet on whether it will be counted.

While the Ulster County ballots were being counted on Friday, election commissioners enforced a ruling by Tomlinson that reporters and observers could not videotape or record the process. One reporter repeatedly challenged that, citing a ruling from Robert Freeman, executive director of the state Committee on Open Government, but to no avail.

Ulster County Republican Elections Commissioner Thomas Turco said if the reporter didn't like the decision, "sue us later."

State Assemblyman Kevin Cahill, D-Kingston, congratulated Tkaczyk in a statement emailed to the media and said he looked forward to working with her for the benefit of their shared constituency and all New Yorkers.

Cahill also said he and his colleagues would study this election and others "to find ways to make certain people who take the time to participate in the electoral process can do so unfettered by hyper-technical barriers."

Ulster County Conservative Party Chairman Edward Gaddy said he was disappointed with the court decision allowing the 99 ballots to be counted.

He said elections standards should be applied equally to all parties and that Amedore's civil rights were violated.